My Son, Channeling Neil Gaiman

So, when your kids are in pre-school you get lots of things sent home with them that they made for you. Sometimes it’s finger painting, sometimes it’s something glued to something else. Sometimes it’s just a cut up piece of paper that your young darling decided looked pretty, and he wanted to keep.

Now of course my 5yr old son did not write that – he dictated it to the teacher. Whether or not he did the purple decorations, I have no idea. (For those who may not be able to see the image, it is block lettering in what appears to be colored pencil the words “SHAKESPEARE WAS TALKING TO PUCK SO HE WOULD KNOW WHEN HAMLET WAS BORN.”)

I expect that this comes directly from his latest request of telling Shakespeare stories at night. But personally I think it’s very Neil Gaiman, very Sandman. It occurs to me, as I go hunting through the archives, that while I’ve read Gaiman’s Sandman books (at least the Shakespeare bits ;)) I never blogged about it. Will have to fix that. But, either way, I definitely get the vision of Shakespeare the playwright wandering through the forest, speaking with mischievous sprite Puck, while Puck feeds Shakespeare all his best ideas.

I love that I’ve created a world in my child’s brain in which Shakespeare, Puck and Hamlet can all live simultaneously.